Steve Webb
In wake of Muncy’s injury, Pujols, Belli, Beaty all options
LOS ANGELES — Though we still don’t know the full extent of the Max Muncy elbow injury, it looked pretty bad in real time. The kind of pain that Max was in, you don’t just shake off after a couple days of rest. Dave Roberts, when ask the question at the postgame press conference on Sunday, said that it was “very unlikely” that we will be seeing our first baseman in the Wild Card game or in the possible NLDS with San Francisco. And that is not fun, to say the least. But when you’re an organization as deep as the Dodgers, there is always another option, no matter what the problem.
Loss is big, but not fatal
To be honest, we’ve been “without” Max Muncy for a while now. Muncy’s last few weeks have been well under his production from earlier in the year. Over the last 30 games, he’s only been hitting .208, and his OPS has been just .752, barely above league average. So, while there have been parts of the year that Max has been carrying this team, his performance lately has been just meh. Problem is, you never know when Max can turn it on and go on a tear like he did in the first three months of the season. Those MVP chants were real. Through the All Star break, his 19 home runs, 52 RBI and .972 OPS were among the best in baseball.
For the Wild Card game, start Matt Beaty
Though Albert Pujols and Cody Bellinger are both options, I like putting Matt Beaty at first base for the game on Wednesday. Here’s why. Albert Pujols struggles against breaking balls from righthanders, which is exactly what the the Dodgers are going to see a lot of on Wednesday from veteran Adam Wainwright. Plus, at 41 years old, Tio Albert isn’t the defender at first that he once was. Matt Beaty, on the other hand, has seen mostly righties all season, and has been pretty decent against them, hitting .261 with an OPS of .750 in 111 at-bats. In addition, Beaty is swinging a hot bat at the moment, coming off a weekend in which he got two home runs, including the go-ahead shot on Saturday night.
Platoon for the NLDS and beyond
If the baseball gods are smiling on us, and there is Dodger baseball beyond the Wild Card game this year, I like using a platoon system until Max is healthier enough to play. Against right handers, stick with Beaty or Cody Bellinger at first. Although Bellinger hasn’t had that many reps at first this year, if you put him at first in the early part of the game against a righthanded pitcher, you could put Lux in the outfield and get both lefty bats in the line up. Similarly, Bellinger at first makes room for Chris Taylor to play center when the matchups favor that.
Against a lefthander, you have to put the Machine out there. He is an experienced hitter with lots of playoff experience and has enough big October moments to fill three careers. That’s got to count for something.
Crowded outfield complicates things
We know two things. Mookie Betts and AJ Pollock will be our corner outfielders going into the playoffs. Centerfield is a bit more of a mystery, and with the Muncy injury, it becomes even more so. I could see starting Bellinger against Wainwright. Wainwright doesn’t really bring the kind of high heat that Belli has struggled with this year. I like his chances to barrel up something against the Cards’ veteran. Plus, San Francisco has a lot of right handers, so I could see Bellinger splitting time with Lux in center against everybody but Alex Wood.
Still, we know how clutch Chris Taylor can be and the guy is too valuable to be just a bench player in the playoffs. He’s a better defender than Lux, so that has to be kept in consideration. He hits okay versus right handers, a little above league average, and he did get a couple of nice knocks in the Milwaukee series. I wish I had more confidence in Taylor at this point, but I just don’t. For the Wild Card, I see him as a right-handed bat off the bench, maybe to lead off an inning.
Matchups will be the key
I’m sure that as I write this, the supercomputers inside the bowels of Dodger Stadium are working overtime to work those algorithms to find the best replacement for Max Muncy on any given day or any given at-bat. If I ran the circus, I’d go with Beaty at first and Belli in center on Wednesday. I think both have a shot at impacting the game. Maybe even like this…
